Word forming toy



June 12, 1956 R. ROMANI WORD FORMING TOY Filed Jan. 1l. i955 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 1 n C l w United States Patent O WORD FORMING TOY Riccardo Romani, Forli, Italy Application January 11, 1955, Serial No. 481,160

4 Claims. (Cl. C35-35) The present invention relates to a spelling device for instructive purposes for infant and elementary schools, which is essentially constituted by: two rectangular vertical boards, brought close together to form a gap which is closed at the bottom and at the sides and which is formed by two spaces so offset as to form a step, above which there are disposed as many dividing compartments as there are letters in the alphabet, in such manner as to form an equal number of compartments into which there are introduced from the top discs each of which bears a letter and which are superimposed and rest on said step, from which, by means of pushbuttons, they are ejected one at a time into the bottom part of the gap, falling and rolling on two guide planes situated one below the other and inclined in opposite directions and of the same length as the boards, while correesponding in position to the bottom one there is formed on the front board an aperture which permits the reading of the words formed by the letters of the alphabet carried by the discs which have fallen down; an acoustic signal to warn of the falling of the letter, and a pushbutton for extracting said letterdiscs, which are formed by two circular parts centrally pivoted together, the front part thereof having a greater diameter and being intended to roll, while the other part is supported by the former and carries the letter of the alphabet, while it is provided with a counterweight intended to maintain it always in the correct reading position.

The spelling device of the present invention is a teaching aid, since it enables the small pupils of infant schools and the irst classes of elementary schools to spell out short sentences and words. It can be regarded as a mechanical toy and its instructive value consists precisely in that the child learns while playing.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one form of construction of the spelling device of the present invention;

this drawing is given simply by way of example, without constituting a restriction or limitation of any kind, while it is obvious that variations, modications, and additions can be made to said invention without thereby departing from the fundamental considerations and principles underlying the invention and forming the characteristics of the latter.

Figure l shows the spelling device in external front view, partly in section;

Figure 2 is a section taken on the line A-B in Figure l;

Figures 3 and 4 show, in front elevation and cross-sec tion respectively, one of the discs bearing the letter A.

The spelling device of the present invention comprises two boards 1 and 2, which are vertical and rectangular and brought close to one another to form a gap 3, which is closed at the bottom and sides so as to comprise two offset spaces in such manner that a step 4 is formed from which there rise, over the entire length of the boards, as many dividing partitions 5 as there are letters of the Valphabet and such as to constitute the same number of compartments 6, into which are introduced from the top ICC discs 7 each of which bears a letter of the alphabet. Inside each compartment 6 the discs 7 are superimposed on one another and bear the same letter of the alphabet. The bottom discs in each compartment 6 rest on the step 4, which prevents them from falling down. 'Ihe rear wall of the compartments 6 (that formed by the board 2), unlike the front one (formed by the board 1), does not extend as far as the step 4, but extends to a point a certain distance from said step which is not greatly less than the diameter of the discs, in order to prevent the latter, when they are introduced, from tipping backwards and dropping out. 'Ihe gap 3 and each compartment 6 have a thickness slightly greater than the thickness of the discs, so that the disc resting on the step 4 is free to move back, when pushed, to such an extent as to lose its equilibrium, and hence to fall.

Near the step 4, on the outer front wall of the board 1, there are provided, corresponding to each compartment 6 and -suitably mounted, pushbuttons 8 provided with return springs, the stern of which passes through a hole provided in the wall at the centre of each compartment, so as to face the bottom disc of each compartment. In the gap 3, beneath the array of pushbuttons, there are provided two guide planes 9 and 10 situated one beneath the other and inclined in opposite directions; these have the same length as the boards 1 and 2. On the board 1, in correspondence with the bottom inclined plane 10, there is provided an aperture 11. A bell 12, operated by a bent lever 13, is provided in suitable manner at the beginning ofthe descent of the bottom inclined plane 10, at the end of which another pushbutton 14 is provided which is intended to free and permit the recovery of the discs. Each of the latter is formed of two circular parts 15 and 16 rotatably hinged together at the centre O; the part 15, which has a greater diameter, has a circular crown, by which it is intended to roll, while the part 16, supported by the other part, carries the letter of the alphabet and is provided with a counterweight 17 intended to keep it always in the correct position for reading.

When one of the pushbuttons 8, corresponding to any of the letters of the alphabet, is pushed, the disc 7 is pushed backwards and loses equilibrium, thus falling on to the inclined plane 9; it commences its rolling movement and at the end of its travel on the inclined plane 9 drops on to the inclined plane 10, at the same time striking against the lever 13, which operates the bell 12. 'Ihe words thus formed by the dropping of the various discs will appear through the aperture 11. In this way, one letter after the other, short words and texts will be composed, the intervals between various words being formed by blank discs, that is to say discs not bearing a letter, which are housed in a compartment at the side of the others. Discs which are then recovered, by operating the pushbutton 14, will then be re-introduced from above into the compartments 6.

What I claim is:

l. An apparatus for forming words and sentences comprising a front and a rear board secured together in spaced parallel relationship so as to dene between them an upper cavity between an upper area of said boards, and a lower cavity between a lower area of said boards, the lower cavity being offset rearwardly of the upper cavity by the width of the upper cavity and said cavities overlapping and opening one into the other at their adjacent ends, said front board including a shoulder defining the bottom of the upper cavity, said front wall also including a viewing aperture opening into the lower cavity, a plurality of vertical partitions mounted in spaced relationship in the upper cavity to dene disc-receiving compartments, a plurality of lettered discs for disposal in the compartments of the upper cavity with the lowermost disc supported on the shoulder, a plurality of push-buttons slidably mounted in the front board in a row adjacent the lower end of the upper cavity and extending at one end into said cavity to contact the lowermost disc in each of the compartments therein wherebyrinward movement of each said pushbutton may serve to cause said lowermost disc to be pushed rearwardly off the shoulder to drop down the lower cavity by gravity, an inclined collecting runway disposed in the lower cavity below the compartments and in alignment with the viewing aperture of the front board to receive discs displaced from the compartments in the order in which the push-buttons are operated, and stop means to temporarily retain the received discs on the runway to permit reading of the words and sentences formed.

2. An apparatus for forming words and sentences, as claimed in claim l, including a second inclined runway disposed in the lower cavity below the compartments and above the collecting runway, said second runway having its lower end terminating above the upper end of the collecting runway, thereby to permit displaced discs which drop onto the second runway to roll along and drop off the lower end of the second runway onto the upper end of the collector runway.

3. An apparatus for forming words and sentences, as claimed in claim 2, wherein the upper end of the collector runway includes a pivoted bell striker adapted to be actuated each time a disc drops thereon, and a bell positioned to be struck by the striker.

4. An apparatus for forming words and sentences, as claimed in claim l, wherein each lettered disc includes a rolling disc member, a lettered disc member of smaller diameter freely pivoted concentrically on the rolling disc member, and a weight on the lettered disc member to retain the lettered disc member in upright position to permit reading of the letter thereon.

References Cited in the le of this patent 

